Letters: How to bring honesty, integrity back to politics

Just because it's the other party's solution doesn't mean it's a bad idea.

I have grown tired of the direction that politics in America is taking these days. I would really like to see honesty and integrity in politics and with politicians. I don't believe the smartest, most qualified people are running for office anymore. I see what it's turned into, and I know I wouldn't run for any office. Breathe a big sigh of relief. I would, however, like to make a difference at the polls. I have some guidelines for candidates, and I hope other voters will follow these guidelines, too. That will make all the difference.

• Don't lie to me. Ever. About anything, for any reason. This tells me you're not honest enough to represent me in office. By lying, you're insulting me because you think I'm not smart enough to know the difference. Back up any claim you make with sources I can verify. Don't make any outlandish promises you aren't going to be able to keep.

• Don't answer the question by not answering the question. Don't dance around the issue, or change the subject. It looks like you're hiding something. That rates up there with lying. If it's about your past, be honest and answer the question. I am less concerned by what you did 25 years ago, than what you did five years ago. I know I am a different person than I was 25 years ago.

• Don't run a smear campaign. I already know what a rat your opponent is. I don't need your commercials telling me over and over again. Tell me where you stand on the issues, how you plan on correcting problems, and why you're not as big a rat as your opponent.

• Treat people with respect. No interruptions. No name calling. Don't belittle an entire group of people. The Golden Rule works pretty well.

• Work across the aisle. I don't believe partisanship gives us the best solutions. Just because it's the other party's solution doesn't mean it's a bad idea. You need to work for the good of the people, not the party.

I think these are some simple rules that are easy to follow. I won't be voting for anybody that's not following them.

Mike CheathamAvon

Talk to kids about the dangers of alcohol

April is Alcohol Responsibility Month and a good time to talk to your child about underage drinking. But it should not be a one-time discussion.

Research is clear that parents are the greatest influence over a youth’s decision regarding drinking or not drinking. Talking to your son or daughter early and often about alcohol is critical, and these conversations are making a difference. According to the annual Monitoring the Future survey funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, binge drinking among 12th grade students is at historic lows, down 55 percent over the past two decades.

Even if parents believe their teens are tuning them out, it’s important for them to keep up the dialogue. The fact is teens are listening, and they’re making better decisions.

Will offers puzzling 2020 election perspective

George Will, for all of his experience in covering politics, acts as if the Democrats seeking the presidential nomination for 2020 are operating so far out of the norm for potential candidates that they are deserving of his derision, along with the current president. It is puzzling that someone in Will’s position finds the idea that candidates float big ideas and even extreme ideas as a way of attracting voter attention in this early phase of the campaign odd. Isn’t this what a political campaign is about and how one is usually conducted? I think Will’s column could have done more to provide his searing insight into the candidates personal profiles or their proposed positions rather than simply attack them for presenting a point of view that one assumes is different from his.

Dale BertelsonFortville

Forget the Mueller report, Democrats

All of the Mueller report that we can reasonably expect to see is in the open. Deep inside I kind of hoped it could lead to removal of the current Oval Office occupant, whose name I will endeavor not to dignify with mention, but I'm totally unsurprised it didn't.

This simple reason is that neither the tenant of 1600 Pennsylvania nor anyone in his orbit, in my estimation, possessed the intelligence to execute collusion with foreign enemies without being caught red-handed before the 2016 election.

The best thing to happen since Nov. 8, 2016 is not the Mueller report, but the mere fact that two years and five months have passed. That means that in only one year and 7 months, we the people will again exercise the right to select the commander in chief.

The task now before Democrats is not to continue whipping this dead horse, but to win the election. In 2016, the American people decided (if only in the electoral vote) that one candidate was slightly less despicable than the other. Democrats, prove to us you can nominate a candidate who can conduct him or herself with ethics and humanity. I believe you will win.

Brian DrummCumberland

U.S. government has failed veterans

No one in this country is talking about the mind altering medications veterans are on. There needs to be better alternatives for veterans. You will find in almost every veteran suicide that they were on mind altering medication. We always put the blame on the veteran and their actions, as the government takes no responsibility in the mess they created.

An officer killed himself at the VA and left a note that said the VA is responsible for 90 percent of suicides. We as veterans have no trust in a system that's suppose to help us. The other issue is we have a benefits crisis in this country. One veteran waited years, couldn't maintain gainful employment and took his life. The VA screwed up, sending him a denial letter. Then they realized he was eligible but too late — he was gone. This is a government that has turned its back on the defenders of freedom.

James YakymMishawaka

Equal treatment empowers students

Given recent claims made in the April 11 Chalkbeat article "Indiana paid for thousands of students who never earned credits at virtual charter schools" regarding student enrollment and attendance rates at Indiana Virtual School (INVS) and Indiana Pathways Academy (IVPA), it is crucial for our students’ futures that I correct the record. INVS and IVPA have daily enrollments that exceed the number of students that are withdrawn (under state law) for non-participation. The lack of credits earned argument ignores the reality of the open enrollment policy of virtual schools, which accept students who are so credit deficient when they arrive that they will not graduate with their cohort.

Only 8 percent of our 2018 cohort was on path for graduation in the year that they enrolled. The remaining 92 percent require counseling, remediation, credit recovery and intervention — all services which require additional funding and stretch virtual schools beyond current funding levels. Cutting this vital funding now will only deny this vulnerable population of students the opportunities that a diploma provides while increasing the costs to the state that are borne in social services by non-graduates.

It’s time we view all students — whether of traditional brick and mortar schools or virtual education — as equal and we owe it to them all to experience the power of education, no matter their circumstances.

Carbon fee will support clean energy

While I was disheartened by the April 14 article on the Wyoming coal lobby group that is influencing our legislators to stop the transition to clean energy, I was delighted by the outpouring of community voices against the coal plant closing moratorium that resulted in its abandonment. The science and already visible signs of climate change could not be clearer, humans must significantly reduce fossil fuel burning quickly to contain its worst effects with all the health and economic perils that would ensure. While coastal states, poorer countries, and countless wildlife species are disproportionately affected, Hoosiers know it also affects us; our infrastructure, health, economy, and agriculture.
Economists are in broad agreement that the best way to transition to clean energy is to put a fee on carbon, including last year’s Nobel Prize winner. The best plan is already a bill before Congress, the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act, HR 763, which would reduce carbon emissions by 40 percent in 12 years. This plan is fair, returning about 97 percent of the fees equally to citizens so most people get back at least as much as they paid for carbon containing products. Contact your member of Congress and tell them to support this act.